Geonetwork Extension

Introduction

GeoNetwork is an open-source metadata cataloguing tool (OSGeo project) which allows editing, searching and validating metadata. It is part of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo, http://www.osgeo.org), which provides a suite of open, free and sustainable tools.

Support for this tool is provided by voluntary members of the community.

The GeoNetwork project started in 2001 and was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN-FAO) in order to archive and publish the geographic datasets produced within the organization [44][42]. It was based from the start on the ISO 19115 draft standard.

GeoNetwork 3.8 is the current version of the tool and complies with the most recent ISO GI-metadata standards. This version comprises a fuzzy search engine, statistics capabilities, APIs based on OGC CSW, DCAT and allows to create custom metadata profiles.

Many implementers have chosen this solution because (1) it is open source, (2) it allows creating GI-metadata compliant with ISO 19139 and ISO 19115-3 formats and (3) it allows sharing metadata using built-in APIs that use OGC web services [45][43]. Some examples of data portal using GeoNetwork include the Dutch National Georegistry, the Swiss Geographic Catalogue and the Norwegian catalogue (geoNorge). GeoNetwork resources are available on the GeoNetwork website (https://geonetwork-opensource.org) and on GitHub (https://github.com/geonetwork/).

How to implement DMF using Geonetwork?

There is a GitHub project to create a DMF module in GeoNetwork (https://github.com/metadata101/iso19139.dgiwg). This plug-in can be downloaded and tested (the procedure is available here https://portal.dgiwg.org/files/?artifact_id=69421), but is not for use in production.